Dazzling Blue Sky on the Window
by Kalcifier
Summary: After Erebus, Metis is prepared to vanish. Igor suggests another option, one that will help more than just her.


It's officially my birthday on the East Coast, which means it's time for another ridiculous AU that only I will care about! This year, it's a blatant excuse to let two of my favorite characters survive the game and interact with each other. Yes, the explanation for how it works makes no sense, but that's kind of par for the course for Persona soul magic.

Fair warning - while there is no active suicidal ideation in this fic, both of the viewpoint characters are convinced that their deaths are in some way necessary, so there's a lot of casual acceptance of death. Please be careful if that's likely to be a trigger for you.

* * *

They defeat Erebus. Metis is genuinely surprised. She of all people knows how strong a subconscious desire for death can be.

This isn't to say that she's upset about it. She's pretty pleased about averting the apocalypse. Besides, watching everyone cheer and congratulate each other, it's hard not to share in their joy. They even remember to include her in the celebrations, after a moment, which is more than she was expecting.

The mood sobers as they realize the implications of what they've done. They're still happy, but it's quieter. Metis has to step out of the conversation as they talk about the girl they lost yet again.

It might be for the best, though. They'll need to get used to her absence. She's not arrogant enough to think that she's become an integral part of their lives, but if this whole adventure has proven anything, it's that someone suddenly disappearing leaves scars.

And like it or not, she will be disappearing. She's known it for a while now. Judging by how easy it is to accept, she might have known all along, though it's hard to be sure. For someone who's only existed for one day, her memories are remarkably jumbled, especially at the beginning of her "life".

It won't matter for long. It doesn't seem likely that her sister will receive all of Metis' memories once she returns. Selfishly, Metis hopes she doesn't. Metis has done a lot of things she's not proud of, and she doesn't want her sister to relive them.

Thinking about it is almost enough to keep her mind off of what's about to happen. She gives her final explanations, tries to encourage her sister one more time. She doesn't complain. It's only because of Aigis that Metis was able to exist as long as she did. She can't ask for her to suffer longer just so Metis can live some fantasy of a normal existence.

She stares at her sister intently. This will be her only chance to see Aigis as her true self, whole at last. "I'm coming home," she says, and tries to sound excited about it.

She's not prepared when her sister turns away, Metis' hands still clasped in hers. "There must be some other way." Aigis looks to Igor, her expression almost pleading.

Metis doesn't understand. She's played her role. It's time for her to exit gracefully. "Sister…"

Igor hums thoughtfully, ignoring Metis. "Perhaps…" he says slowly. "While Metis was built upon a core of your emotions, over the course of your journey, she has developed a spirit of her own. The growth of her Persona is proof of that. If someone were willing to give to her a fragment of their own identity, it's possible that she could continue even after restoring your psyche. However, it would also be necessary to drain her of her excess life essence. An imbalance between body and spirit would be very dangerous." He looks to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth's eyes grow very wide. "What if…" she begins, uncharacteristically hesitant. "What if there were a human whose identity was intact, but who had no life essence of her own?"

Igor's eyes twinkle. Metis thinks she sees what he's implying, and the thought fills her with dread. "Then both of them would stand to benefit," Igor says. "But they would also be inextricably linked. Immediately after they were bound together, they would share emotions and injuries. Even once they were given a chance to recover, it would be unwise for them to stray too far from each other's sides."

By now, the entirety of SEES has caught on. Mitsuru is clutching her arm as if to physically restrain herself. Ken is trying to hold still, but he keeps bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement before reining himself in. And Aigis… she's blinking rapidly, as if trying to remember how to emote. Metis feels a stab of guilt for dragging things out as long as she has.

She refuses to let herself cause her sister any more pain. "Would any harm come to my sister?" she asks.

"No, no," Igor says. His tone is less than reassuring. "No matter the outcome, your metaphysical core would return to where it originated. Should anything go wrong, the effects would only be felt by you and this hypothetical donor."

Aigis looks concerned at the mention of things going wrong. Metis pays her no mind. "I'll do it," she says.

"It won't be easy," Igor warns. "Your circumstances are unique. Nothing like this has been attempted before, even by us."

"I understand." Metis has caused so many problems for her sister. This is her chance to set things right.

Igor nods. "I recommend you be put to sleep for the actual bonding process. Your soul will be able to adjust more easily without the interference of your conscious mind."

"All right." It'll be easier that way anyway. If anything goes wrong, she won't have to say any goodbyes.

As if sensing her thoughts, Aigis reaches out to Metis. "Sister…" she says, suddenly hesitant. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Absolutely." She turns back to Igor before anyone else can interject. "I'm ready to begin." She puts herself into sleep mode, and everything goes black.

* * *

Minako opens her eyes. This in and of itself is kind of surprising, since the last time she was conscious, she'd been dying.

Her friends are all gathered around her, and for a minute, she's convinced she's still on the roof on Graduation Day. Maybe she'd managed to keep herself going long enough to meet up with them after all. She's glad. It would suck to have dragged herself around as a living corpse for a month and then died right before keeping her promise.

She looks closer and realizes her mistake. Her friends look more haggard than they were the last time she saw them. She hasn't seen them this tired since they'd lost their memories. Then she makes a second, more obvious observation: there's a ceiling over their heads. So. Probably not the school roof.

She's lying on something soft, like a bed. The walls of the room are bare and white. She can draw her own conclusions, but she'd much rather talk to her friends. It feels like forever since she last saw them, and even longer since she was able to have a meaningful conversation with them. Ryoji could have warned them that victory would still make them forget.

Or, well, he probably couldn't. He didn't know much more than them, in the end, and what he did know had doomed him. There's a familiar ache in Minako's chest at the thought. It feels strangely dulled, though, like remembering a sad movie she'd watched. Maybe she's not as awake as she thought.

It doesn't matter. She pushes herself upright. Instantly, all eyes are on her. Her first instinct is to smile to defuse the tension, and at the moment, that isn't hard to do. This may be the first time all of SEES has been in the same room since Nyx. "Hey," she says. "What did I miss?"

The team exchanges a look. Minako is pretty sure Fuuka is crying, which is the opposite of what she wanted. Yukari's looking choked up too, but she manages to ask, "How are you feeling?"

"Wow, déjà vu," Minako jokes. "We have to stop meeting like this."

It gets Yukari to exhale loudly, though everyone else looks confused. It's still better than the hopeful disbelief they've been showing up to now.

Yukari does raise a good point, though. Minako's been so busy analyzing everyone else, she hasn't really thought about her own state. She takes a second to evaluate it now.

The first thing she notices is that her exhaustion is gone. It's funny – she's spent the last month all but defined by her weariness, and now that it's gone, she hadn't even realized. It's hard to notice the absence of something, she supposes.

Her relief isn't as sharp as she'd expected. It's there, but muted. It isn't like before, either, when she'd had the emotions but been too tired to express them. Now she's only feeling things at half strength. The thought scares her, but even the fear is muffled.

Well, there's no point in working herself up over it now. She's alive, and her friends are there, and the world doesn't seem to be ending, so this is pretty much the best-case scenario for her. She can worry about the consequences once she's alone.

"Honestly, I'm feeling great," she says. She watches her friends relax and knows she's made the right decision.

There's a tugging feeling in her chest. She fights to keep her smile in place. This is new, but she's just decided not to worry her friends. She's not going to change her mind over something as insubstantial as this.

"I'm glad to hear it," Mitsuru says. "I've had our best doctors look over you, and according to them, you're in perfect physical condition. You should be able to return to the dorms as soon as you feel ready."

"Isn't that basically what they said before?" Akihiko asks. "There weren't any problems then, either, but she wasn't moving."

Yukari's eyes flicker to Minako, but discussions of her own death don't bother her. She'd been prepared for it. What worries her is the hurt in Akihiko's voice, the glare Mitsuru gives him in response, the way everyone still feels the need to walk on eggshells. She hopes they've been able to cope with her absence.

"That's true," Mitsuru admits. "But unless she's planning to take on another ancient deity by herself, I believe we can assume she won't do that again."

They all turn to Minako expectantly. She shrugs, though even in this numbed state she can't fight down a flicker of annoyance. She'd done what she had to do to protect everyone. "I make no promises," she says. Aigis' face twists, and Minako realizes she can't be flippant about this. Not yet. "But I'll try," she adds hastily.

"Good," Aigis says. She looks like she's about to say something else, but she's cut off by a rustling from across the room. Aigis takes a step towards it, before stopping and looking back at Minako.

Minako feels a slight sense of disappointment, but she shoves it aside. The tug in her chest is back, insistent, and she thinks she can see the cause.

* * *

Metis opens her eyes. The first thing she does is scan the room to make sure her sister is safe. Aigis is standing a few meters away, staring at something Metis can't make out past all the other people. She looks happier than Metis has ever seen her.

Good. The important part of the transfer seems to have worked. Metis closes her eyes and runs a diagnostic on herself.

The first thing she notices is that her body isn't quite right. It's heavier than she's used to, more solid, and the circuits are wired differently. She's no longer patterned after her sister.

It's only logical. Her previous body was a temporary vessel, constructed from Shadows and sheer force of will. It wouldn't have survived outside the Abyss. She wouldn't have needed it to. Now, though, she is her own person, existing in the world on her own terms. She has no idea what to do with that.

It doesn't matter. She continues her diagnostic. As Igor warned, her Persona has lost some of its strength, but otherwise she seems to be operating at full capacity.

Even so, she can't escape the nagging thought that something is off. It's not her body – she's recalibrated her senses to match the new one. Soon she'll forget that she was ever anything else. There's something else, though, something less tangible.

For someone born from an excess of emotion, she's remarkably bad at pinpointing her own, and so it takes her some time to realize the problem: she's happy.

Her first thought is that yes, of course she's happy. They've achieved their goal, and her sister is safe. That's all she needs. But for some reason, the thought leaves her feeling hollow. Her happiness is removed, divorced from her actual situation.

It's then that she remembers: Igor had warned that she would share emotions with SEES' old leader. It must be her happiness that Metis is feeling. The thought fills her with jealousy, knowing that she's probably happy because she gets to be part of the team again. They'll accept her with open arms.

But it's Metis' own fault that they don't care about her like that, and she knows it. She won't let it get to her. She sits up, ignoring the way the strange happiness morphs into confusion as she does.

From her new vantage point, she can see that everyone is crowded around a hospital bed. They look up when she moves. Her sister smiles at her, taking a hesitant step in her direction before glancing back at the other bed. Both halves of Metis' emotions are in sync for a moment, each radiating a quickly-smothered disappointment.

Metis doesn't let it show. She gets to her feet and joins the rest of the team, though she doesn't have a clear purpose in mind. "Sister?" She lets the implied question hang in the air, though she's pretty sure she knows the answer.

"Ah," Aigis says. "This is our leader, Minako-san. Minako-san, this is my younger sister, Metis."

Metis feels an inappropriate burst of joy to hear Aigis keep referring to her as her sister even now that she knows the truth. She ignores it to look down at the girl who caused so much trouble. They'd gone to so much effort to bring her into the future, though it should have been impossible, and somehow she's dragged Metis along with her. "Hello," Metis says. She doesn't know which of them her wariness belongs to. She doesn't know if it matters.

It doesn't seem to matter to Minako, who smiles up at her brightly. "Aigis never mentioned a younger sister," she comments. "Well, it's nice to meet you. I'd bow, but…" She gestures meaningfully at her bed.

Ah, yes. Bowing would have been the polite thing to do, wouldn't it? Metis does it now, though it may be too late to matter. "It's fine. It's nice to meet you, too. You meant a lot to my sister." Even now, there are fragments of Aigis' code running in Metis' processors, telling her that she has to stay by Minako's side. They're secondary directives at best, though, easily ignored. Metis has her own ultimate priority.

There's a complex expression on Aigis' face. Metis wishes she were better at interpreting it. "I assure you, if I had known of Metis' existence, I would have told you. Suffice it to say that it is complicated."

"It's actually thanks to Metis that we were able to save you!" Fuuka says. "Well, her and Igor."

Metis feels a jolt of secondhand surprise as Minako's eyebrows raise. "Wait, you know Igor?"

"Uh-huh! We met him after… after we fought Erebus," Fuuka says. She suddenly refuses to meet Minako's eyes.

"Erebus?" Minako tilts her head. "What have you guys gotten into without me?"

"Well…" Junpei begins. No one races in to help him. Metis considers explaining, but she's not sure how much background Minako would need. No one's been willing to talk about her. It's inconvenient, now that Metis has to figure out how to interact with her.

"Anyway," Mitsuru says. "Now that you've met Metis, I'm afraid there are some conditions to your recovery that merit explanation. In order to bring you back, your life has been tied to hers. You'll need to stay by each other's sides for the immediate future. With time, you should become more independent, but seeing as we don't know what level of separation is dangerous, I recommend you stay in the same room for now. I'll have the necessary adjustments made to your dorm room by the time you return."

"Oh," Minako says. Even sharing Minako's emotions, Metis can't decipher her reaction.

Her own feelings on the matter are equally complex. She's grateful for the reason not to be alone, but being with someone who tolerates you out of obligation isn't much better. Minako might grow to resent Metis for always being there instead of her real friends.

"Can you believe it?" Junpei asks, smile stretched wide across his face. "First Ai-chan and now Metis? Man, Minako gets all the hot robot chicks."

Metis blinks in confusion, but Minako only laughs. "What can I say, they have good taste."

Metis looks to her sister to try to figure out what she's missing. Aigis doesn't seem to notice. She's watching Minako intently, like she's trying to commit every inch of her to memory. Metis is struck by a loneliness she hasn't felt since she woke up in the Abyss of Time. She looks away, feeling strangely guilty.

"Anyway," Minako says. "It sounds like I've missed a lot. Why don't you start catching me up?"

There's a moment of hesitation. Then Yukari starts telling a story about something one of the girls on the archery team did, and suddenly the room is full of noise. They're practically talking over each other in their haste.

Metis tries her best to follow along. She's not very successful, not having the points of reference that most of the conversation relies on, but that's going to have to change if she's going to stay with these people.

Eventually, a doctor comes in and suggests that the patient be allowed to rest. Metis isn't sure whether to be relieved or nervous. It's a break from trying to puzzle through the stories, but now she'll be alone with the person she knows least about. The alien emotion in her chest is equally conflicted.

You couldn't tell it by looking at Minako, though. She's all smiles and promises to see everyone as soon as visiting hours reopen tomorrow. It's not enough to keep the nervous looks off anyone's face, but Minako keeps waving cheerfully until it's just her and metis. She sags then, just for an instant, before turning to face Metis. "Well," she says brightly, "I guess it's just you and me. I hope we get along."

"Me too," Metis says. Not that she's doing a very good job of showing it. "She's spent all this time wondering what sort of person Minako was, and now that she's here, Metis has no idea what to say to her.

Minako bites her lip. "Actually," she says. Her voice is more hesitant than Metis has heard it. "I've been meaning to ask. What did they mean when they said you're the one who brought me back?"

She shrugs as if it's no big deal, but Metis feels her anxiety as a pit in her nonexistent stomach. She can't help but let it affect her own mood.

"Not that I'm complaining," Minako adds when Metis doesn't answer immediately. "This is definitely better than being dead. But with everyone looking so worried, I didn't want to remind them of… everything, so I figured you were probably my best shot at an explanation."

Metis nods. "That makes sense." She takes a moment to organize her thoughts. She still doesn't know how much Minako knows, so it would be best to start at the beginning.

Or, well, not _the _beginning, because that would be somewhere around the dawn of humanity. She skips over that. She skips over her own beginning for similar reasons. Minako has no reason to care about the time Metis spent wandering the Abyss of Time, confused and lost and so very lonely.

She also decides to leave out the part where she attacked Minako's friends. That one is sheer selfishness, but there's no one to call her on it.

She doesn't start at the beginning at all, in the end. She starts with the decision to reassemble SEES, and she goes from there.

Metis isn't a very good storyteller, but she gets the impression that Minako isn't a much better audience. She sits completely still as Metis speaks, her facial expression barely changing. Only the emotions flickering in the back of Metis' mind show that she's still listening.

"And that's where I stopped being conscious," Metis concludes. "I don't know anything about the bonding procedure itself." Minako doesn't say anything, and Metis' eyes fall to the floor. "And… I'm sorry for lying to you."

That gets through to Minako, who shakes herself minutely. "What do you mean?" she asks.

"For telling you I'm Aigis' sister." The words are hard to force out, but she keeps going. Minako will hear the truth soon enough. "It was easier than explaining everything, but…" She hugs herself. "I know I'm not. Not really. I'm not even a real person."

She'd thought she'd accepted that fact, but saying it out loud is more painful than she'd expected. She's not looking forward to seeing the disdain in Minako's eyes, now that she knows how Metis' every action is manufactured. Even her devotion to her sister is nothing more than base self-preservation. The wave of despair at that thought is enough to drown out the panic and anger coming from the other half of her mind.

She's pulled from her thoughts by a hand on hers. Minako is still in her bed, but she's crawled forward to meet Metis. "You feel pretty real to me," Minako says. "I mean, yeah, maybe you were just a piece of Aigis' mind at first. But the whole reason I'm here is that you were able to become more than that, right?"

"Only because of my sister." Metis isn't convinced she's changed at all, really, but if she has then it's entirely thanks to Aigis. All Metis has done is make mistakes and nearly get people killed.

"Maybe," Minako says. "But the only reason I've made it as far as I have is because of my friends. Is that really so different?"

Yes, Metis thinks. At least you chose your friends. They're important to you of your own free will. Metis is just following the pseudo-code impressed on her by her origins.

But when Metis goes to argue, she notices just how tired Minako looks. "You should sleep," she ends up saying instead. "It's important for humans, especially humans recovering from trauma."

"I was asleep for the last month, I don't really want to sleep more," Minako says. She sounds like she might be joking, but even if Metis couldn't feel her panic, the frightened look in her eyes would give her pause.

Metis hasn't decided whether to press the issue when Minako continues speaking. "Anyway, you should probably work on your deflection skills, but I'll take it this time. How about I tell you a story? It only seems fair, since you just told me one."

"I guess?" This conversation has gone veering off course from where Metis thought it was going, and now she's a little lost. A story will give her a chance to calm down, though, so she's not going to complain.

"Great." Minako scoots back, then pats the bed in front of her. "Here, sit down. It feels weird to make you stand while I'm in bed."

Metis sits, if only because Minako looks pleased with herself for suggesting it.

"Now then." Minako's voice slows down, her intonation sing-song. It's nice, though Metis couldn't say why. "Once upon a time, there were three sisters. The youngest of them was said to be more beautiful than even the goddess of love…"


End file.
